Hi. We are a design/style LA based company specializing in mixing eclectic styles on moderate budgets. Also we have a strange amount of fun blogging about all our design and style adventures. Right now I’m happy to say that I’m Target’s home spokesperson, bringing accessible/stylish design to the masses.

Making Changes As We Continue To Grow...

Site Relaunch and Adding to the Team

Big exciting changes, and we need big exciting people to help. Yes, we are hiring and expanding over here at EHD.

But first the back story, a little recap of my feelings about my business. As you know last year, I shutdown ‘The Flea’ and client design department to focus more on the blog and my own personal design projects. The goal was really to stay lean for a while, to intentionally not expand the business while still growing the traffic and brand. The main reason was bandwidth – not the actual internet, but that of my own human body/mind and honestly that of my team. It’s like backward business 101. But I have heard this theory amongst risky careers like mine – stay lean, don’t over-invest, etc.

Well, I’ve since changed my mind and the site is about to blow up (figuratively speaking). What really made me finally decide to expand was how I myself was using the site as a designer, reader, and a shopper. As I’ve been designing these two houses (Mountain house and Portland house) I realized that we were missing opportunities to be such a better resource for this design process. Our thoroughly researched posts get lost in the single post feed layout we currently use and while we have a resource page with a lot of vendors on it, it’s not as compelling, useful, easy to navigate or updated as it could be. I tried to listen to so many of you who said ‘we want your voice’ but as you probably can tell there is NO way that I can write every post on the site, nor do I need to. And reducing the blog to only my posts misses so many opportunities and would kill traffic and good content, thus the business. I need to focus on documenting my major projects, writing about them, creating compelling photo and video content FOR them (I’m really excited about the video series for I Design, You Decide) and of course writing my personal posts. Plus leading the team, brainstorming new content and overseeing, you know, life. We also have soooo many posts that I want to write that are smaller and don’t fulfill our 2700+ (not a factual number) word every single post needs. Like my ‘I can’t believe I’m actually loving… {insert product or trend I’d NEVER thought I’d like}.’ The single post feed was too limiting and the content was lost too quickly once the new post went up the following day. When we posted more than once a day you didn’t come back and those posts were lost due to the faulty single-post layout.

Every 6 months over the last few years I brought up the ‘should we be a site, not a blog?’ question to myself but was also really fearful of my blog losing its soul by adding contributors and making it more of a ‘web-site’ that felt like a machine. Also, why fix what ain’t broke???

MY LATEST VIDEOS

But my leg isn’t ‘broke’ and yet I try to run and make it stronger. My relationship with my husband isn’t ‘broke’ and yet I still try to have a better marriage. Just because something is indeed successful doesn’t mean that it can’t also be better.

The new site will be so much more user-friendly and resource heavy, with even more daily content and the same amount of posts by me (if not more, since I can write short posts with less pressure). In 3 months, with the new site, we can be a bit looser with some fun content that is more topical, but at the same time have a larger featured post every day. Obviously, the hope being that you come back a couple times a day and hang out with us for a long time enjoying the content and using it as a resource over and over.

Who is us? The same team that we have (Brady: Editorial Director, Jess: Office Manager/Blog Assistant, Sara: Photographer/Social Media Director and Julie: Junior Designer) but we need to add some more people to our amazing team as things are changing.

Here is what EHD is looking for to help take this blog to a site and have it well-run:

A Social Media Marketing Expert

This person needs to have at least 2 years experience in a high-level social media position. Their responsibilities will be working with me to strategize, produce, copy-write, and execute content for every platform, including expertise in advertising, be blue-print certified, and know the adobe suite. Any other video, photo, or animation skills are a . Obviously, a lover of lifestyle and design would be lovely. But I really want someone who can bring their experience, expertise, and knowledge to my team, and really take it all to the next level to create the most compelling content on all digital media platforms. This position would be full time, in LA but I am willing to pay for someone to relocate to LA for the absolute right person for the job. The pay will be based on experience, but I’m looking for someone with a lot of experience. Send resumes, cover letter, any examples of past work (and anything else you think necessary) to [email protected] – Please put SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT in the subject line.

An Editorial Manager

With more posts a day comes the need for someone to manage the editorial calendar, be responsible for the day to day publishing/editing of every post, and manage the potential various contributors. Brady has been taking on this role but he’s also doing 9 other jobs (including this one) and is going to see more big picture items and production of everything that we do moving forward, so we need someone with experience to handle the multiple posts a day situation. They need at least 2 years of experience at a managerial position in the digital field. Copy-writing skills need to be strong, and an expertise in digital media and lifestyle blogs is extremely helpful. This person will also help brainstorm, pitch, and execute/write articles for the site as well as make sure that the site is as user-friendly as possible ensuring that you (the readers) are always heard and are having the best experience possible. A lot of organization and leadership is required and I’m hoping this person can really help streamline the daily production in the office. This position would be full time in LA, but I am also willing to help someone relocate to LA if they’re the right fit! Send resume, cover letter, and any other information to [email protected] Please put EDITORIAL MANAGER in the subject.

Writers/Contributors

We are looking for editors and writers that have compelling voices, who know design and lifestyle. These people would pitch story ideas on a continuous basis and fully execute the production of posts from start to finish. We have a few right now that I’m very excited about (Orlando, Ginny, Mel, and Carla), but I haven’t put it out there yet and we can always use more. This would be a freelance position, with a pay-per-article structure. The person also does not need to live in LA. They should be familiar with wordpress, have excelling copy-writing/editing skills as well as have a good sense of what is happening in the design and lifestyle world. Send resume, cover letter, any examples of past work and writing examples (and anything else you think necessary) to [email protected] – Please put CONTRIBUTOR in the subject.

House Manager/Personal Assistant/Mom 🙂

Now that our kids are both in preschool together til 2:30 our lovely nanny is moving on to a full-time family next month. We also want to spend some afternoons with the kids since we have flexible (although busy) schedules. So instead of hiring a nanny we’d love to find someone who can of course watch our kids and loves kids, but also manage the house. That would include meal prep, keeping things organized, running errands, tidying things up when needed, returning things to Target and other stores, etc. I’d love to find a mom honestly, that really knows how to run a house and doesn’t mind doing all things house related. This could be part-time 1-6pm, Monday – Thursday (maybe, Friday too) but it’s flexible with a lot of time off in the summer as we go up to the mountains. This person should be a total self-starter, motivated, super positive, responsible, organized, intuitive, lovely to be around – again, positive attitude please 🙂 Send resume, cover letter and any other info you think we should know to [email protected] – Please put HOUSE MANAGER in the subject.

We are also looking for the following from YOU:

House Tours

While we will certainly not turn into a house-tour site we are looking for beautiful homes, with interesting architecture and decor that haven’t been published yet. We would come in and style, shoot, and then publish your space here on the site. So if you want your house, or if you are a designer looking to get a project shot and featured, email [email protected] with scouting photos of the space (pulled back shots) or any existing shots you have as well as a bit of info on the project. The homes should be in LA (or within reasonable driving distance).

Design Agony Questions

We are revamping this series because we all actually loved it. We just didn’t have time to do it, then I had a baby and we forgot about it. So Ginny is going to take it over. YAY! Send us your design problems, with good photos of your space and we’ll try to solve them and post about it. Shoot your submission photos during the day, with multiple angles, lots of natural light (if possible) and really pulled back. While we don’t expect these to be BEAUTIFUL photos, the better they are the more likely they are to get selected and then solved and blogged about. Email [email protected]

Your Spaces Inspired By EHD

A handful of you have sent along photos of spaces that you have created, styled, or shot that were inspired by the spaces, projects, or DIY’s that we have done on the site and we LOVE seeing them. It is so much fun to see your take on them and see our stuff out there in the real world. Send through pictures of your rooms, vignettes, or areas that are inspired by what you see over here on EHD to [email protected] We just might feature you in a post or on social, but mostly it is so fun for us to see.

Portland Design Assistants or Interns

We are moving fast on the Portland project and, with the help of Jenna, trying desperately to hit our May goal, but if there are any assistants in Portland (or students in college studying design who want hands-on experience) email [email protected] with PORTLAND DESIGN ASSISTANT in the subject line. As we get closer to the final finish date we’ll need PA’s and styling assistants, too, but ideally I’d have a few that can work freelance from now ’til May.

I’m so excited. I’m just so bummed that rebuilding the site takes so long!!! I want it now! The vibe will be the same (we aren’t rebranding, just rebuilding), the content will be better, the resources will be more organized and there will be even more of what is already good. We are getting bigger and better for you, and can’t wait to show you what we have coming up.

I feel like I actually know you, my readers, really well but in the name of understanding even more about you we have a quick multiple choice and short answer survey. It’s fast, I promise 🙂 to take the survey and please let us know your thoughts in the short answer areas as that is what helps us bring you the best content every day as we continue to grow.

If you have ANY requests or suggestions for the site, we’d love to hear them. If there are new series that you think could be good or even just individual articles that you’d love to read, let us know in the comments below.

Are you scared? Excited? Do you feel like you are watching me grow up and graduate or are you nervous? If you are nervous, DON’T BE. It’s just more and better…

dear Emily,
I am an assiduous reader of yours next to my morning coffee.
I am an Argentine who recently returned to her country after living 8 years in Chile where honestly, although Ikea-type furniture is available, there is no inspiration for interior design in my country.
I have a small not very successful called my space in order (in Chile the organization of spaces is not very popular) although my real profession is that of accountant and business administrator (boring !!!).
I discovered your blog one day, and as I do with those I like, track your first post until you read them all, from your rental apartment, the purchase of your first home, the new home, your professional development, birth of your children, buying a house on the mountain, etc.
My work is stuck to my computer. Because between the morning visit of news sites everything ends in a visit to your blog? Well the reason without a doubt, besides that particular format to transmit (sometimes not understandable since I read it with a translator because I speak Spanish) is that in the last time I find a daily post, which in most other blog exists. Once you counted the long steps that the team gives to publish it and all the work of hours that is behind. So it was that I found out that the post is scheduled to be published at 5 a.m.
Many times I visit your blog in the afternoon with the hope of finding something new.
That’s why this news of a site, I think I understand that it is so good. Could perhaps include news and post smaller, more agile (I love for example the graphs of how to decorate a bookshelf, a living table, etc that do not need a great post).
So I am very happy about this great news, looking forward to seeing the change!
This is the first time I write a blog comment but it is what made me feel the news.
greetings for the whole team
Silvana

Excited to see where this goes! Just want to throw out there though…don’t become myDomaine. Frankly WAY too much content. Maybe it’s just me, but I find it overwhelming! And in so many of their posts I see typos or errors and I think, “why not post less and spend more time perfecting a few posts?” Quality over quantity.

I totally agree too! Too many post are too tiring to read in one day and sometimes good content can be missed. I am writing a comment for the first time ever, but for ages I wanted to write to suggest posts like Design Agony Questions and now I am super excited. Thank you Emily for the hard work throughout the years – your blog was the reason why I stoped following sites like Apartmenttherapy and Mydomain just because I don’t know it completely satisfied my need for design inspiration. Can I also suggest that we see more from Brady design and style work. His kitchen makeover is one of my most favorite post ever. I love you and I can’t wait for what you are going to offer us in the future.

Agreed, not too much please but some organization would be great! I was looking recently for the many posts on choosing a shade of white and it took forever to find the one I was thinking of. Please index the old content! It’s a huge resource but not super easy to access.

I agree with you that some sites post way too much and it becomes a chore to check instead of a hobby that I look forward to. I was always afraid to miss something and would feel the need to read even the articles that I wasn’t that interested in which was a vicious cycle that I eventually unsubscribed from to get peace. However, I like MyDomaine because although they post often I pick and choose the articles of interest and the best part is most of their articles are short and succinct, perfect for my busy day. Apartment Therapy on the other hand is the one I unsubscribed from they dominated my blog feed. I feel so much lighter now.

Don’t worry!! This has always been my hesitation, so I understand yours. I’m focusing on a few really compelling voices. I use ManRepeller as a good example – you get a lot from Leandra who is still the face and name, but I love their other writers as well – Amelia and Haley. I think they post 2-3 a day and while I do miss some the site is easy to navigate to find the most popular from that week. I’m sure there will be tweaking, but our goal isn’t to churn out content, but instead be free to post more of what we want to write about. xx

Keywords are okay, but an index is MUCH better. Please please include one in your new site. If you need or want help, I would LOVE to do it, as I am a professional indexer. That is literally what I do for a living- I organize vast amounts of information and resources and edit. In fact, maybe I should just apply… 🙂

House Tours, YES! I love this idea, especially if you feature all sorts of homes – of course, show us the perfectly renovated and styled homes like you would produce (and I’m thinking the likes of Studio McGee, and Becki Owens), but also some “real readers” homes that have been renovated – whether DIY or under the work of a skilled contractor.

We renovated our 1978 custom ranch for over one year with an incredible contractor, and while we didn’t have a designer on our project (the design team was our contractor and me, but man we’re a great team!), our renovation was a major transformation. I spent MONTHS planning (obsessing), and for myself (mom/wife/business owner/avid design blog reader/interior design lover), showcasing a combo of professional home reno/design projects AND projects completed by someone like me, you’ll appeal to a broad reader/fan base.

I just marked my calendar to email [email protected] in one year. Sadly, on the last day of our renovation, the guys installing the glass shower wall in the master bath caught a flood in our NEW kitchen (and beyond). Read: devastation. We are right back to living in construction, dealing with $30k in damages, and my husband and I are bummed! Prior to the flood, I had just started to decorate, as the renovation process alone was a lot to process (many important design decisions). Anyways, we’ll get back to normal, and I’ll be back to furnishing and decorating soon enough.

OMG, that sounds INSANE. Would love to see it and good luck!!! KUDOS to people who don’t have a design team to help with a massive renovation. I don’t know how people who have jobs and aren’t professional designers make it through renovations. Its decision exhaustion 🙂

My friend hired someone last year that sounds exactly like your House Manger position. She was trying to describe the woman’s role to me, and then she said, “Well, she’s basically my wife.” It was hilarious and true. Good luck with everything!

YES. We joke that we need a proper housewife. Running and house and parenting is a FULL TIME JOB as many of you know, but when you both have a full time job then the house goes to the dumps! I know i’m not alone here. So maybe this person can run the house and i’ll focus more on the parenting in the afternoons? Dunno. But we’ll try it. I need a wife!

I have said more than once, “I need a wife!” My husband and I both work full-time, and you know the deal. But I watch these dudes at my office who have stay-at-home wives and think their lives look amazing. They take full hour lunch breaks and all walk to restaurants together while all the women in the office are running around like crazy people, taking a half hour (if that) to run errands, etc., on our breaks. Oh to have a wife!!!

I love that description for this role! I have been working in that way for another family for three years and absolutely love it! I love seeing how much of a difference it can really make! I’m so excited and working on the application right now!

I love your blog, so i’ll be excited to see more posts every day. It sounds like your site will become more what ApartmentTherapy.com is. I actually go back to that site constantly throughout the day (I’m sooo sure my employer appreciates this). So, your site will now be another reason for me not to be working! Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm, just kidding Big Brother/Employer/co-workers that may be reading this…..

As a web designer/developer, this has bothered me since the rebrand. Serif fonts (which the body copy is written in) is often hard to read on a long digital format, especially with the small type size the designers chose for this site. I haven’t ran a check (I’m not trying to be the accessibility police) but I don’t think the body copy would pass accessibility requirements; or if it did, it would be toeing the line.

Serifs are great in large sizes, like headlines, but body copy is more legible and accessibile for people when it’s a sans-serif font. Just food for thought on this subject!

I’m a web designer for a university, so we’re very careful about everything meeting accessibility requirements. But the things we do help make websites more user-friendly for everyone, not just those with disabilities! It’s a great idea to keep at least basic accessibility in mind, things like font size and color contrast (this is a great resource if you want more info: ). I think those saying darker just mean a font with less stroke variation (i.e. serif fonts are composed of thick and thin lines, like calligraphy). As Anna said, sans serif fonts are generally better for readability on screens, and 18px is a good size (though it varies depending on the font). Increasing the amount of space between lines of text would probably help with readability too. Hope this helps!

Emily — it’s the type, not an IT issue. Serif fonts are not the best type option for digital, long-form writing, unfortunately, which is what you’re using. If you switched your serif font to your blog post titles (and made it bigger, of course) and your sans serif blog title font to your post bodies (smaller size, obviously), then it would immediately be an improvement.

Cup of Jo is a good example of smart use of serif fonts as titles and sans serif fonts in the text body.

One suggestion for the new site: I’m moving to a new apartment and looking for design inspiration, round-ups, and other resources, but have had trouble using the “Search” feature and navigating through the archives to find the most helpful posts. Sounds like you’re heading in that direction, but I’d love there to be more ease in using the website and all its past posts as a guide. Thank you and love the site and your voice!

YES. don’t worry. It wiIl be MUCH more user friendly because I have the exact same frustrations. There will be a page for all the roundups that link to the posts of the roundups. There will be per room categories that link back to the posts as well. I’m sure we’ll need to tweak it, but it will be better, i promise!

Yay! I’m happy for you and your team, and I think going from blog to site is a great idea! I’ve been a loyal reader for years. In the name of feedback, I will say that I do miss the quirkier, more colorful, less expensive vibe that used to be showcased on the blog. I adore the current style of course, but it feels out of my league much of the time because of the typical price point. It feels more inspirational than attainable for me. I love inspiration, don’t get me wrong, but I also enjoy quirky and inexpensive. But most of all, I love you and what you do! Thanks for brightening my days with your blog/ soon to be site!

Noted! Hopefully different voices will bring in different styles and price points that appeal to different people (without trying to go mainstream … such a balance). Thanks for reading for so long 🙂 xx

Hi Emily, I always appreciate your honesty and the beautiful ideas that you share, but I agree that the expensive renovations and furniture feel unattainable and not realistic for me. We live in a nice house with a two income family and I often wonder who is this content for? If I can’t justify spending huge amounts of money on decor, it must be the same for most people. Anyways, I am excited to see real living spaces again. I love colourful designs that work with spaces, rather than gut and completely start new. I’m looking forward to your new site!

Daily reader here (I even come back later or the next day to read all the comments of the posts that really interest me), just commenting to say how excited I am to see such a genuinely deserving person doing so well with her business while prioritizing giving back to your community. You are rocking at being a working mom! Your kids will be all the better for having seen first hand a good example of a strong, ambitious independent woman.

The site re-build sounds awesome and helpful. Looking forward to seeing more real spaces, design agony and trends posts. (honestly, more of anything but the round-up/get the look posts is great news for me!!) So glad you are committing to posting at least daily – I find your content mainly awesome and would happily read more posts that were shorter in length.

The idea of you being a site sounds great, BUT, I use a feed reader (Feedly), so i want to be sure that all of your posts will still feed into there with changes. If they don’t I won’t be able to read them as there is no way I can (or want to) visit every blog or site that I want to read and follow. Hoping that they will still all feed in!

I would agree with those who say don’t make it too buys. The Mom Edit redid their blog and I will have to say it’s a little chaotic. I much prefer less buttons, less links to push and less information in general. If I have to hunt around a blog to find what’s new then it’s not being effective. That said, I am excited to see some of the new things, but would still agree that posts from you are my favorite and honestly I tend to skip the majority that aren’t. Not because they aren’t good, but the vibe that I get from you is why I continue to come back to Youxi988’s blog and that truly doesn’t transition to everyone else that posts on your site.

One suggestion would be to hire a translator! He/She could translate your posts to Spanish (for example) and your blog/website could achieve many more people and visits since not everyone understands English! they would love it, pretty sure!

So excited about this!! I wish I had the experience to apply for one of these positions!! (I’m in events/catering so this isn’t my field haha)

I especially am excited to have the resource section so we can look for paint colors, rugs, lighting, etc without having to dig out the round ups that we love. Usually I furiously pin every single image from those round ups!

I think it would be helpful too to add a byline so that we know who wrote the post. I think people are fine with other contributors, but feel cheated when it is passed off as Emily’s voice (and I promise you we can tell…). Cup of Jo does this really nicely.

Every day long time reader over here. I just came to say that I LOVE your single feed style. Most of the blogs I read have switched over to more of a “site” format and I honestly dislike it. It immediately loses the warmth and personal feel to a blog. If you’re going to go this direction, could I suggest doing something similar to A Beautiful Mess and adding a “blog view” option? The blog view, IMO, is simply more digestible and allows me to keep up with what I missed.

It’s like the algorithm vs. chronological format of Instagram. Everyone misses the chronological format because they feel like they’re missing things with the algorithmic format, ya know?

As always, though, happy to see you growing. Your blog is my favorite that I read, but I’d like to put emphasis on BLOG. Oh please oh please don’t become Apartment Therapy or Design Sponge.

Personally I like the single post/day, bc while most of the time I can make time to read one post, there are days when I can’t even remember to drink water, much less stay on top of multiple posts. The Blog Format suggestion is a nice suggestion as a compromise.

I’m asking because I’m trying to figure out how to voice my opinion without being hurtful, and in the wake of the “no negative comments” rule. Is there a way to discretely say “I love guest posts by Person A and B, but not Person C?” I guess it would be simpler to say nothing and just ignore posts by Person C, but what if the topic is something I’m really excited about reading? What if the post could just be written by Person A or B, or some new person? I hesitate to even ask this question because Person C seems like an awesome person and a great designer in real life, just not a strong writer.

I think you go with your gut and focus on the authors you enjoy, allowing for a wider variety of voices and narratives to be heard on the site.

That said, there are definitely avenues of constructive criticism you could take to specifically note what it is about a certain writing style you think could be improved, rather than posting that one writer can do-no-good. Because like you said, interesting subject matter is spread amongst all of the EHD team, allowing everyone to have an opinion and also develop their voice with each new piece of content.

Love your work, love this new direction. My $0.02, with all the work that goes into a new site, please please consider site speed and make sure it stays strong. With all the content and photos, it’ll be crucial. I work in digital and more and more, users, especially ones on mobile, bounce if a site takes too long to load (I know I do!), and it does hurt your SEO as well.

yes, thank you for that reminder. My IT guy is typically great about this. I do get bummed when sites load slowly and we have the issue where our photos are high quality and we don’t want to compromise that, but have to … its tricky, but thank you!

When I was designing my apartment, I used your site a lot, and my favorite posts for that were the round ups of a lot of product. They, as you say, get lost and thus, it would be ideal to have a section JUST for those. (Some that are currently tagged “roundup” wouldn’t really apply.)

Exciting! Oh man, if I didn’t have a full-time job right now I’d totally be lining up for the Editorial Manager position…there was about a year there when I was hoping you’d post just that! Haha. BUT super excited to send in my design agony question…we are moving in a month to a Spanish-style house (we’re in LA) but it’s a RENTAL with carpet…. 😐 And the landlord said he’s gonna put in drapes before we move in, and I’m like “How do I put this nicely…can I pick them out?!” lol. Anyway, will definitely need some help, also figuring out how to maximize our half-acre of property surrounding the house (!!). Also we have a 2-year-old and have been living in a small apartment for 2 years so need, like, everything. Design agony or design impossibility? :p

If I lived out there in Cali, I would so apply for your house manager position! I do a little of this for my SIL (four busy kids, both she and my brother working full time) and I love it! She loves coming home to a clean house and having a back up plan for picking up kids or getting them to practices or whatever. Our girls are older so I have a little more flexibility – and there are only two of them! I feel like every mom needs a little help in those crazy years.

Emily….ie always thought you were over stretched. You’re wonderful, available, but you family should be first, then you business, and finally us!
Good luck in your changes….whdontyou only post three times a week……to start?
Hug, jay

Ok, I think other people have voiced similar opinions. Please don’t make into another site like Apt Therapy or Design Sponge. I sometimes visit their site because I follow them on Instagram but their multiple posts a day was too overwhelming, disjointed and too many different editorial voices. But I get it, you are very prolific. I love your Instas but I can barely keep up with them! Honestly, setting limits to how many posts you do helps you edit and keeps the content quality so high!

As I begin to contemplate my dream renovation (in Austin, Texas), I find myself thinking: I wish I could ask Emily! I have so many questions that I can’t answer with simple Google research, and wish I could access some real talk. I’m not sure what this would look like, but the idea of the website offering resources for readers who are renovating/building/designing sounds like it might get close!

please please please get rid of the pop-up at the bottom of the site with the relaunch. it’s just so darn frustrating to have to deal with it every time I try to get to a new page and drives me away from the site

OMG I could not agree more with this. It’s especially frustrating because it pops up when I land on the site, but then it also pops up AGAIN after I click on the “Read more…” link to read each blog post. It’s truly infuriating and (I’ll be honest) it makes me not want to visit the blog because I feel kind of bombarded by ads. When I’m on my phone at work trying to catch up on your blog, it feels claustrophobic and I often end up just exiting out. 🙁

Please please please make sure you’re interviewing applicants who are people of color (and hopefully hiring them.) And if you aren’t finding them, I would recommend using a hiring service to make sure you get those applicants. Even if they don’t have exactly the experience you’re looking for, diverse perspectives are invaluable to a growing brand and effective team.

I absolutely 100% second this. There’s very much a one note in the interior design world in regards to style, perspective, family, it just all looks the same and creates a disconnect. I am in no way placing the reason for this on the EHD team. Often times people may not be aware of an absence of something if you always see yourself. Diversity is important and I and I hope many more would love to see more peole of color, their work, and their incredible products. They are out there. 😊

These new positions and voices sound so exciting! I’ve learned so much from following you over the years, our style is so much more pulled together and polished and I’m so confident now that we’re turning the corner to renovation and major improvements on our first home. I was actually one of the first people to send in a request for Design Questions Answered when it launched awhile ago so I’m happy to see that it’s back, I would love to make sure I’m on the right track before pulling the trigger on big decisions. And I can’t wait to send photos of everything you’ve inspired!

I’d normally say I wouldn’t read 2 posts a day but I have a 2 month old baby so I’m reading lots at 4am. I’d love to read posts by Brady and Ginny, but if you have new people I’d like them to be introduced really well before they actually start writing.

For a blog post, I’d love to hear what things you buy second hand/ vintage, what you get from target etc and what you buy from more expensive brands. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks

I miss the roundups of products that have form and fuction, like pretty utility items series you once ran. There were a few awhile back and I specifically remember a few great bathroom/toilet brush combos and some spatulas from Crate & Barrel. I love the decor roundups but I find the combo of form and fuction pieces to be more applicable (and I’m more likely to purchase) at times.

I forgot to add on my survey under the what you don’t want to change part, the filtered comments. I usually read all of the comments on a post after I read, because I’m interested in what other people thought and how you responded, and your blog is the best at not having a much of nasty comments. I read the comment section on Apartment Therapy and the negativity there makes me bummed out or pissed off a lot of the time, but I can’t seem to stop myself for looking at the comments after the post. I think this is especially important if you are going to have more house tours, before and afters, or photos of readers interiors; sometimes I feel bad for the people that post their house on Apartment Therapy because people are such jerks in the comments on something that they are probably proud of (or were).

Hi Emily! Love the idea of a thoughtful facelift, curated contributions, and I generally can’t wait to see it revealed.

One thing that I have secretly wanted for about three years is to tweak the way your tagline is written. I fully admit to having compulsive editor-brain, and I am sorry to be a drag…but there’s no need for the “L” to be capitalized in “Let’s get weird.” It can live happily as a lowercase since it follows a semi-colon. 🙂

I’d like to see more of the “weird” return, like it was a few years back. Things seem a bit too “perfect” lately and there’s personality in “weird” {like the kitchen island :)]. Maybe through house tours, we’ll see some real personality+ coming through?!

I’d really love some contributors of color. In general 0 and this isn’t a slam, because the whole design world is like this – your team is very one-color, as are the designers you reference, the friends you mention, the hair stylists you go to, etc, etc. This is a very white blog, and honestly, they’re pretty much all very white blogs. When you look at (the few) designers of color out there, they often use textiles or patterns in a different way from their white counterparts, and I think we all could benefit from that added perspective. Plus, representation matters. I’d love to see at least one contributor who is a POC on the new site!

I agree 100%! You are an eclectic but mainstream voice (if you know what I mean) and have such a huge audience. Bring in more color (literally and figuratively!)

Love you, and have for 6+ years. I’ve read you while nursing, while resting, when I need a break from hectic times, or to unwind at the end of long days. I love reading comments from your readers. This is a positive and a no judgement space. Thank you for your hard work and the hard work of your wonderful team! I will continue to make daily space for this space in my life!

Hi Emily! Your blog is my favorite and I’m always happy when you expand and grow. My only concern is many have changed to sites and you go to the main page and there are so many “categories” to choose from to click on and it’s overwhelming to know which to choose to read especially if you have limited time and I never know where or which contain the most recent blog posts or content. Please when you redesign dont make it hard for us to find what we all come to read. Your amazing ideas, opinions and voice. I love your teams posts too I just hope I don’t have to click on 10 different tabs each day to read everything new. Thank you and just wanted to throw a suggestion of what not to do pretty please!

Wow! I’m very excited to see what you have coming up! I’m sure it is worth the wait.

I like the way you have kept it a blog as this makes it more personal and less intimidating. Plus you are so friendly and just reading what you have to say makes it feel like I’m reading an email from a friend. I like that you have kept your readers always in consideration and that makes us feel special.

Can I add my two cents on a question you didn’t ask? I can? Thank you. I don’t love house tours, pretty rooms, nice stuff, but it’s not mine, I rarely get anything out of it, ideas-wise, and when I do, it’s usually just one thing but normally I just remember the dog. I also don’t love make-overs because sure I can buy all new stuff and it’ll look great. I mean, it would look better if you told me what all new stuff to buy and then placed it. But chances are that isn’t ever going to happen. What I would love to see, and I don’t know of a site that does it, it a make over tour where the designer comes into a house and reuses what is there and maybe just advises on paint color or pillows but basically make what you’ve already got work even better. Oooo, or convince people to edit their stuff down, sell it and with that money buy new stuff that works better. Wait, is that already a show somewhere? I’d watch it.

I love this and can’t wait to see all the new stuff. I’m fairly new to reading your blog but have really enjoyed keeping up with it since last spring. I just bought your book today for some fresh design inspiration. I was curious on your house tours category if you have parameters or are fairly open at this point. My family owns an old historic building on our Main Street that was once partly used as a hotel that we’ve converted in to loft spaces that I’m biased in thinking are really cool. I wasn’t sure if this was too “apartmenty” vs home. I’m not a certified designer-I just love and appreciate beautiful design.

I am so excited!!! I honestly hadn’t even opened up this post because I didn’t think I was going to like it… having too much of a “team” behind a blog sort of makes it feel less like a blog, less like a personal account of someone’s individual, relatable home-design journey. Yet the moment you said you were making this into a site rather than a blog…. well, OF COURSE!! Suddenly I was totally on board and it
all completely made sense to me. And I suspect I will be that person obsessively checking multiple times a day for new posts. I love each and every one of your ideas here and am so excited for it to all happen!!!

A million times YES! I think this would easily become my new favorite website. Your writing voice, your funny and amazing team’s voice, and your design style. I think you have all the right ideas by keeping it tight and focused on what is already great about EHD.
Can you do us a favor when you roll it out? Could you prominently feature the author for each article. Before clicking, I would want to know it was you who was writing it, for example.

I love your site and visit it often. I find the ads overwhelming though. The pop up at the bottom is always annoying, and seems to block too much of the screen. Right now, I’m typing this next to a shopbop/ Madewell ad to the right that actually changes, an ad for your site above me (I’m already here!). It feels chaotic and, I think, is influencing me to visit less frequently. I hope you’ll cut down on the ad chatter! Regardless, congrats on your success and I’m excited to see what’s to come! Sam

this may have already been said, but i would LOVE to be able to click through to the products you highlight in roundups, rather than having to remember which number they are and scroll up & down to get to the actual link. i remember you introduced a different method a few months ago, but i still seem to find myself landing on the older/PDF versions that are kind of maddening when one wants to gobble up all of your amazing knowledge 🙂 thank you & best of luck to you. i’ve been a fan since Secrets of a Stylist and love seeing how successful you have become!

I start my morning with stopping by your site before I dive into my daily work. Multiple posts will probably be bad for my productivity, haha, but how could I say no to more content? I’ve been following you from the time you were on Design Star (though more as a lurker than a commenter until recently), and it’s been fun watching your success grow since then. 🙂

I loved it when you featured Ginny’s place and Sara’s place – because they were SO different than yours and it was fun to see different design choices.

Also (and I’ll just keep asking for it) maybe a contributer could takeover the Craigslist finds? I LOVED this feature. It was so great to have a pro tell you – buy this but buy it for this amount. Super, super helpful.

Please let me start off by saying this all sounds really great, Emily and Co.! I saw your comment above about doing something similar to what Man Repeller has done, visually and functionally, with (of course) the added resources that come with being a major design blog. I trust you’ll maintain your voice and not go the (disastrous) way of sites like Apartment Therapy.

That said I do have some constructive feedback I hope you’ll consider as you hire and work towards improving your site and brand. This is incredibly hard for me to write, because I love you and your blog very much (I’ve read since the beginning) and I’m very sensitive to criticism myself. However, this seems as good a time as any because it’s something I’ve wanted to comment on for quite literally *years* but couldn’t quite work up the nerve.

I know you mentioned hiring a dedicated Editorial Manager (which is great!) but please – PLEASE – consider also hiring an *Editor*: someone whose SOLE JOB is to proofread and provide quality assurance on the writing and links in posts before publishing. It could even be a part-time job! So many people think this type of work should just be rolled into the responsibility of an Editorial Manager, but at the level you are aiming to reach, there are too many things that can be missed when one person is juggling so many high stress responsibilities at once. Having someone with the time, focus, and skill to refine every post before it’s published is what your blog has been missing up until this point and oh goodness, Emily, does it need it.

I mean this with all due respect, genuinely and wholehearted. While I LOVE your voice (it’s truly unique and so friendly), you and your current team are not strong editors and honestly – you (and they) shouldn’t need to be! The truth is, no one should self-edit their work if it can be avoided (you will miss errors in your own writing almost 100% of the time) and people who were hired to be design assistants or lead designers shouldn’t be expected to have the editing skills or attention-to-detail required to ensure all written content is immaculate.

I say this as an editor myself, who is a firm believer that nothing can be proofread or QA’d too thoroughly when it will be read by hundreds, or thousands, or (goodness) millions of people. I say this as someone who reads your blog EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. (religiously, like I drink my morning coffee), but also cringes at the punctuation, grammatical, and spelling errors that could easily be avoided by hiring the right person who is not also expected to wear 19 other hats. This is just a guess, Emily, but I’ve gotten the impression you don’t let others *really* edit your writing because you’re afraid it won’t sound like you anymore. If so, please know that the right editor could take your voice and stream-of-consciousness writing and simply elevate it to a heightened level of consistency, readability, and professionalism.

I know you value high quality content; it’s evident in the design work you produce and the photographers you hire. There’s no question you WANT things to look good, and because you want it, they do! I only recommend that you aim to put that same level of care into the writing you publish, because it really does make a difference.

Hopefully I wasn’t out of line by saying this; criticism is not something I provide lightly or without an incredible amount of thought. I care so much about your blog – hell, I care about it so much, I’ve thought about offering you my editing services for free! It’s just that a blog of this caliber deserves better attention to detail, Emily, and if I – a lowly reader – can see the potential for improvement here, I hope you can too.

No matter what you do, I know you’ll continue to move your blog and business towards something bigger and better and more inspiring for all your readers. I’m excited to see the new content and read the new voices you bring onto your team.

Stacy, I agree with you and you communicated what you said very compassionately.
I have worked as a freelance writer and never, ever edited my own work (retired early in 2012). The reason? Because you can’t “see” what you’ve written, after so many drafts. You inherently read what you think you wrote, instead of what is there on the screen/page. By lending a new eye, the end result is better. I don’t mean content-wise. My work remained “my” voice. By having an editor, those little glitches that one can never see oneself, after a while, were seen by a new eye and fixed.
It takes guts to hire an editor though. It’s an exercise in fearlessness and letting go of ownership in a sense – Emily has demonstrated that she embodies fearlessness, so she should be able to take this on. I also edited the work of others and went the extra yards to make sure everyone was on the same page regarding the process, before we got started.
Ha! I usually just rapidly ‘tap’ my comments out and don’t particularly ‘check’ them through, let alone read them through before posting; hence, they’re full of typos and often, poorly chosen words. I thought I’d better put a smidgen of effort into this one. 😉
I really hope Emily takes this one on, because she’s shootin’ for the stars!

I love this blog, and I love that there’s a post every day, and I love following your story, Emily. I hope you will recruit better writers, and a better editor for those writers, than you have in the past. I love the posts you write, and some of your team’s posts, but the guest writers (except for Orlando, who’s WONDERFUL) in the past were pretty bad/boring in my opinion.

I echo the readers who said that having a lot more posts could be pretty overwhelming. I know I’ll be clicking through to a smaller percentage of posts and reading less, once you have more, because there’s only so much time in the day. Also less likely to visit every day if there’s an overwhelming amount of content.

Looking forward to seeing what you do, though, and of course these exciting renovations you’re working on!

Hi! Long time fan and (fingers crossed!) future employee of yours over here 😉 I’m putting my application together and I’d love to know the deadline for application submissions! I didn’t see it anywhere in the post?? Please let me know as I’m hustling to get it together but also want to submit a refined and polished application. Thanks so much in advance! 🙂

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Hello!

Emily is a stylist, author and T.V. host with a strong commitment to vintage inspired approachable home style for every single person. Perfection is boring; Let’s get weird. learn more

Interior Design Blog by Youxi988

I started this interior design blog in 2010 as a journal of my style and home projects with the belief that design should be approachable, informational and accessible no matter what budget.

As a home style expert who has a strong commitment to peeling back the intimidating layers of the world of home decor, and showing how every person can have a beautiful home that represents their personality, no matter what the budget.

After styling for magazines and catalogues for years, I started my own interior design blog, won HGTV Design Star, and have gone on to host my own hit TV show Secrets from a Stylist, Author the book STYLED, and create the design firm Youxi988 Design.

My motto has always been to write and publish on my blog what I personally want to read about.